Separate Ways Worlds Apart
by Roxanne Bird
Summary: A tragedy at Fangtasia changes Sookie's life forever. Assumes all 8 books. A bit of ESN. COMPLETE


**Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)**

**A/N:** I was debating even posting this but here it goes...This is a winsy bit odd and quite farfetched (meaning it goes against pretty much everything CH has said might happen in future books) but I am in a really weird mood today so I wanted to get some of my random emotions out on paper. I was listening to a lot of Dixie Chicks and Journey (hence the title) while writing this.

It's rated M so obviously there is going to be something good. (hint hint)

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"Sookie!" Eric's voice was laden with pain, and it wasn't his own.

I looked up at him, into his blazing blue eyes. Then I looked down. Down. Down I went.

When I woke up I was being cradled in Eric's arms. I think we were still on the floor. I think I felt blood on my hands and chest. There was a piercing sound in my ears. I know I was in a numbing agony.

I struggled to breathe, my chest was constricted and I felt a gurgling in my throat. I tasted blood. My own.

_So this is what it's like to die_, I thought. No amount of vampire blood was going to heal this wound without turning me.

Eric was holding one of my hands and with his other he cradled my face to his forehead.

All I wanted was to see his beautiful smile and eyes for the last time before I slipped into oblivion. I tried to look at them but my vision was going white.

I tried to tell him I was sorry for not listening to him but all that came out was another unsettling gurgle.

"I love you." He whispered. It was the first time I had ever heard him say those words and they came out sounding more as a plea for why I shouldn't leave him. I wanted to say it back. I would have meant it. But I couldn't say it because there was a hole in my chest sucking all the air out of my lungs. All I could do was offer him a small smile. I wanted him to know that I would be okay, that he would be okay.

The bond between us turned dark. It ached. It beat. It was in agony.

I was gone.

Time froze and I wasn't in physical pain anymore. Looking down at the blood stained floor of the bar I understood what had happened. If only I could understand why.

I remembered. Eric had summoned me. I was to read the minds of three Fellowship of the Sun members accused of being at the fore front of the bombings on the Pyramid of Geezah hotel at the Rhodes summit. Felipe de Castro sent the members up under Victor Maddens supervision. Fine job he did.

It was after hours so the only beings in the bar were Victor, Pam, Eric, the three FotS members and, of course, me. I was sitting in Eric's booth reading the men one at a time. The vampires were standing around us.

It was my normal routine, almost second nature by now. I was in the middle of putting a serious trance on one of the members that took all my concentration and attention, which is why I had no clue what was about to happen next.

The front door of Fangtasia broke off its hinges and Eric was in front of me before it could come to a loud crash on the floor. _More Fellowship members_, I gleamed from their thoughts as I snapped out of my reading. _Are these men stupid_, I thought. No, they weren't. They had silver artillery.

"Grab the blond bitch, kill the rest." One yelled. He could have been talking about Eric, Pam or me. But it didn't take a telepath to know exactly who he wanted.

Eric gave me a shove down into the booth and a look that said "stay put." The members hadn't seen me yet. Victor knocked the men I had been questioning unconscious (or at least I hoped) with one swift blow to each of their heads. The vampires immediately attacked. I knew that it would be more dangerous for Eric not to fight and just stand around and protect me. Pam and Victor were capable, but Eric was a force to be reckoned with.

The vampires had to proceed with some caution so that they did not come in contact with any of the silver weaponry. Eric got stabbed in the back of his thigh with what I surmised to be a silver dagger while he was momentarily distracted with ripping a man's head off. Victor and Pam weren't in the best shape either.

I had to do something. I couldn't just sit around and watch my vamps get beat up. I felt useless. Then I remembered that Eric always kept a hand gun behind the bar (though no vampire would probably ever need to use it). All the members were being distracted so it was no problem for me to crawl across the floor. Once I was on the farthest side of the bar where no one could see me I cautiously opened the little swinging door and crawled inside finding the gun.

By the time I got up off my knees Pam had been wrapped in a silver net and she was being stabbed repeatedly. Both Victor and Eric were occupied. I had to help her. I leapt over the counter to get a better angle for a shot.

I fired the weapon. The sound resonated in my ears as I saw the man with the knife hit the floor.

The bang was much louder than I expected. I started to feel something trickling down my front and back.

"Sookie!" Eric cried out.

I collapsed and the searing pain took me over.

As time stood still I glanced around more. All the Fellowship members were dead. Eric had gone into a glitter rage on them.

Pam leaned against Victor as they both looked over at Eric and me. She was clearly wounded but would survive to fight another day. Her expression was of a sad nature. Victor was just blank.

A bright blinding light filled the far corner of the bar. It was the same light that I saw when I tried to look into Eric's eyes. A beautiful figure walked out of it. Niall.

He came over to me, took my hand and lifted me out of Eric's arms. I didn't want to release my hold on him but instinctively I knew I had to. Looking back at him, I was still in his arms. Well, it wasn't exactly me, but my body at least. It was as if Niall ripped my essence from my shell.

"Child." My fairy great grandfather soothed. "It is not your time."

I opened my mouth and tried to speak but no words would form.

"You were not supposed to do this. Your bond to the Viking is too strong for your own good. You will come with me now."

"No!" I shouted finally finding my voice.

"You do not have a choice." He said. "You are to become full fey. Child, you are far too important to let go."

"I would rather die." Hell, I would rather become a vampire. At least that way I could be around Eric. If I were full fey I would never be able to go near him again.

"No, you would not because if that is the way you felt I would not be here. You called me. The world will need you in time my dear. You cannot die. There are souls that need your help and you will deny them of this?"

"I don't believe in destiny."

"Someday you will. Come we must go."

"Wait." I said.

I turned back to Eric who was still frozen cradling me in his arms. I knelt down in front of him and stared into his eyes. They were absolutely filled with hurt. I laid a gentle kiss on his lips and wiped away the one bloody tear that had trickled down his cheek.

"I will always love you." I whispered in his ear, even though I knew he would never hear it.

I stood back up and Niall offered me his hand.

"Someday you may return to him." He said

We walked back into the portal into a realm I had never witnessed before.

I lived in that realm for the next several centuries, staying young, beautiful and most importantly alive. I often missed my friends from my human life. Sometimes I could feel Eric through the bond. He was in pain. I could feel how empty he felt at times and it made me ache to be with him. I never forgot the way he touched me while he was under the witch's curse, it still felt like yesterday.

Niall was growing older. The fey live long lives, but they are by no means immortal. I understood that I was the last direct living heir to his throne. This is what he meant when he said that someday the world would need me. Niall and Claudine spent centuries teaching me fey secrets.

Not long before Niall died, he taught me how to mask my fey scent.

Though I had lost track of time, it had been nearly seven centuries since that fateful night where I was ripped from the arms of my beloved. I never told him how I felt and I never stopped thinking of him and he never stopped thinking about me.

Tonight, I would rectify that.

Much had changed in the mortal realm. There were too many futile wars to count. Thanks to magick of the fey variety, the world was able to be salvaged and sustained (but greedy humans would soon rip it apart again).

My Viking was no longer in Louisiana. He had not been there for some time. Instead he had moved back to his home land. I reached out for the bond and caught onto his consciousness and catapulted myself to him.

Oddly enough, I found myself in a bed with crimson red sheets. I looked beside me and sure enough there was Eric, as young and handsome as when I had left him. He was also conveniently naked.

Night time was fast approaching, but he would be up earlier due to his very old age. Through centuries of fey training I was able to control my heart rate, but at this moment, I forgot how and my heart beat like a hummingbird.

I lay there gazing at him with hungry eyes, tucking a few strands of his long blond hair behind his ears. He had never found another. Sure, both of us had a few suitors, but none of them lasted long.

He began to stir. I stopped breathing. He sensed a presence and shot his eyes open while turning to face me.

He opened his mouth to say something, and then shut it, clearly at a loss for words.

"I am dreaming." He finally stated. "I watched you die in my arms. I buried you. I remember like it was yesterday because I died with you."

"No." Was all I said and let the bond open to prove it.

If Eric had breath I know he would have been holding it as I was mine.

"How? Why?" He barked. I sensed a bit of anger. He was deeply hurt that I had not come to him sooner.

I simply tucked my hair behind my ears and turned my head showing him that they were pointy. He was in awe. He understood that I could not come to him any sooner.

"You are the fairy princess? How could I have not known?" He asked.

"I go by a different name in that realm." I offered as an explanation.

"How long do I have?"

"Not long enough." I said sadly. "But I will be back, as often as possible." I smiled at him.

"My lover." His fangs ran down and a sensation of shivers that I have not felt for centuries made their way down my body to my lower abdomen.

He reached out and touched my arm. A single crimson tear fell to his cheek and I wiped it away.

"It was you. I knew I felt an essence brush against me that night but I could not be certain." He kissed my wrist and paused for a moment as if he was in deep thought. "I also felt something else. I felt your love wash over me and then it was gone, ripped from me."

"Oh, Eric. I am so sorry. I'm sorry I didn't listen to you. I'm sorry I never told you how I felt. I'm sorry I caused you so much sorrow."

"No lover. I swore to protect you and I failed. I am sorry for that and I am sorry for never doing this--"

He grabbed me and kissed me senseless. Being away from Eric for weeks used to make me long for him, god knows what centuries of not seeing him did to my libido. I guess I was about to find out.

His kiss was exactly as I remembered it, if not filled with even more love and passion.

I was glad that Niall had taught me so well to conceal my scent or else our reunion would not have been possible.

He ran his hand down the side of my floor length red satin dress. Though I could just snap my fingers and the dress would be gone I did not want to miss the sensation of the satin slipping over my supple skin as Eric removed it from my body.

His deft hands found the zipper on the back of my dress and just as I imagined, the sensation of him gliding his hands over my bare flesh as he slid the dress off my shoulders was enough to make me moan.

"That is a beautiful sound." He said. "I will hear that several times tonight."

After exploring each other's bodies for what felt like a wonderful eternity, Eric positioned himself on top of me.

"I love you." He said before he entered me.

Our love making was slow and reverent. We were both memorizing the other's body as if we would never see each other again, and perhaps we wouldn't. What the future holds I do not know. But I know that without my Viking lover I felt emptied and being with him felt like coming home. Fey and Vampire parings were rare if not taboo but I would do whatever was in my power to come back to him until the day I die.

Eric was gently stroking in and out of me as if I would break. I giggled and he gave me a very quizzical look as he thrust into me a bit harder.

"Eric, I'm fairy, remember? You can't hurt me even if you tried." I moaned softly. I wanted to add "Just don't drink my blood." But I trust him. With his age he probably fed very little.

He took my statement to heart and began pounding into me at an inexorable pace. I locked my legs around his waist and bent my pelvis up to meet his already deep thrusts. I ran my hands down his back and grabbed that perfect butt that I longed for so much. He grunted appreciatively.

He kissed my breasts and laved at my nipples. I was on the verge of a very powerful climax.

Eric put his forehead to mine as he did the night I passed on and said "I thought that was the last time I would ever touch you."

I looked into his eyes and said, "I did too."

Tears began to pool in my eyes. "I love you, Eric."

We both came. It was the most exquisite release. I screamed his name while Eric moaned in that dead language I still have yet to learn.

Our ancient bond hummed with contentment as Eric disengaged from my depths and pulled me into his arms, kissing the side of my neck and shoulder.

He laced his hands with mine and said, "My Sookie, you smell divine. You are absolutely stunning."

I giggled. Eric really could bring out my girly side.

In between our multiple rounds of love making we would recount stories to each other about our lives since The Night. It felt right. I wanted to be here and I never wanted to leave.

What the future holds I do not know. But I know that without my Viking lover I am empty.

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_Fin_

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